


Nighttime at the Avengers Tower

by puremarvelfeels



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Feels, Backrubs, Beanbags, Bucky barnes' metal arm, Canon-Typical Non-Consensual Body Modification, Dreams and Nightmares, Feels, Fuzzy blankets, Gen, Hamilton References, Headcanon, I need to be stopped, Like I literally mention those two words that's it, Literal Sleeping Together, Memories, Natasha being sterile, Nightlights, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Oh wait, Panic Attack, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Um what else, Wait for it, bad memories, etc. - Freeform, haha see what I did there?, halp, that's about it, twenty points to Gryffindor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 12:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puremarvelfeels/pseuds/puremarvelfeels
Summary: My headcanon about how the Avengers team sleeps.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alicia I](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Alicia+I).



For months, the Avengers and associates sleep in the same room. They splay out over the couches and chairs, they put sleeping bags on the floor, they crash on Tony's beanbag chairs. That way, someone's always there when someone else isn't okay--heaven knows, they all need the support.

·Wanda is the exception to the rule--she has to stay away from all of them. Her powers give her sensitivity to other humans, and if she's anywhere near them, their nightmares will keep her awake. She sleeps by herself in a quiet room on the opposite side of the Tower.

·Vision has put his charging port near her. Although he doesn't actually require sleep and tends to roam the tower or converse with FRIDAY during the night, he likes to stay as close as he can. Since he knows other minds tend to bleed into her subconsciousness, he fills his head with the best and most pleasant thoughts he can possibly find, and it helps her sleep. She sleeps particularly well when he replays their memory of how happy they were that time he tried to cook for her. 

·Tony is non-stop, and he pushes and pushes and pushes himself until he finally breaks and crashes for around eighteen hours or so. He's found that sleep born of exhaustion is less conducive to midnight panic attacks or the nightmares he sometimes gets. Nobody really judges him; they just do their best to take care of him and make sure they're available for whatever he needs. Sometimes you just do what it takes to survive, and they understand that. 

·Natasha is hyper-alert, pretty much always in some state of awareness (and usually moderate anxiety), and wakes up at every noise. Once she's awake, it's hard for her to get back to sleep. Too many memories of the Red Room, all her training, all the killing, and the handcuffs at night so nobody could try to run. The fact that never having kids isn't her choice anymore. Sometimes she just sits and thinks for a while, sometimes she listens to music, sometimes she hacks the CIA out of boredom, sometimes she uses her time to write. Only Clint's ever known that she's writing storybooks for his children. 

·Bruce has trauma to his system from the radiation poisoning and his sleep cycle pretty much doesn't exist. Being around other people seems to help with falling asleep and staying asleep, so they all try to have a standard bedtime and a routine for relaxing before they sleep.

·Rhodey's been fighting non-24 for years, and the meds he's tried either didn't work or had pretty miserable side effects. But keeping to a routine and also not being alone seem to really be helping him. He and Bucky have ended up being friends--they've both fought through the trauma to their bodies after a major injury and the rehabilitation and modifications required to return to normal-functioning-human status.

·Sam was in the war and lost pretty much everyone he cared about over there. He still wakes up to his mind replaying machine gun fire and screams.

·Clint's hardened himself into a really bad case of combat fatigue, so he doesn't sleep very much or very well. Most of the rest he gets is just by lying there staring off into nowhere and letting his mind go blank. Knowing he's somewhere safe does help with being able to sleep, though, and he knows he's safe here--life in a fortress with over a dozen other superheroes is pretty secure. It's just nice, though, that even when he's not at home, he still has family nearby.

·Thor is used to sharing a room; namely, he's used to having a brother. He still feels vaguely betrayed by both Loki and Odin, and without his family he's incredibly lonely. Being with the Avengers isn't quite the same as being with his family, but he has an adopted brother--he knows family is a choice. And this side of his chosen family is a pretty nice one to have; they understand loneliness and accept him like he is. Among the flesh-and-blood oddities in the world, other oddities like him just seem to fit in.

·T'Challa keeps waking up crying because he misses his father. It's silent, and nobody really says anything because they know. He gets a lot of sympathetic backrubs, though, and those are really nice.

·Scott is as messed up as Bruce on his sleep cycle because of all the physical changes. He doesn't deal well with full darkness--honestly, most of them don't--so he's the one who made sure there's a soft nightlight that stays on through the night. He's also the one who made Tony get the beanbags. No particular reason except that he likes them and Tony is infinitely accommodating.

·Peter is just really lonely and doesn't really have anywhere else to go. 

·Bucky hates being alone and tries very hard to stay warm. Steve, Natasha, and Clint gave him thick, soft, fuzzy blankets for Christmas last year, and he sleeps under all of them because he _hates_ being cold. He has a lot of memory nightmares of being strapped in place as the tube descends around him and everything becomes _cold, cold, no, Steve, cold, no, **no**_ before the world goes black. 

·Steve's mind at night puts him through his memories on playback. The worst nightmare--rather, the worst to wake up from--is the one with the plane, the ocean, the plunge into dark, dark blue. Lying down as the water starts to fill the inside, thinking _cold, cold, Peggy, **cold,**_ but also _Papa, Bucky, Nana, Mom._ Welcoming his proximity to heaven, because with the exception of Peggy, everyone who loves him has died, and _he's about to see them again; **he's about to be with God**_. He usually doesn't cry until after he wakes up. Nobody blames him for wanting to go home.

**Author's Note:**

> So, that's about it. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to drop a line if you have ideas or criticism, or if you just want to talk about your own headcanons. It's pretty boring and lonely in my corner; I'd love to talk to you.
> 
> Check out my other works?


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